#4: Ulrike Marie Meinhof, Militant German Activist

Ulrike Meinhof, 1964 (Wikipedia)

Bank robberies, bombings and the formation of the German militant group Red Army Faction (RAF) made Ulrike Marie Meinhof one dangerous lady.

Known alternately as a terrorist and a folk hero, there is no question that Meinhof and the RAF were outright criminals. The left-wing members considered themselves communist urban guerillas, and organized in response to what they saw as a reluctance to deNazify conservative West German society.

But even if you agree with her political views, it's hard to get behind Meinhof's actions. After working as a journalist sympathetic to the various socialist and communist student movements emerging in Germany in the late '60s, Meinhof decided it was time to participate. With the help of an armed accomplice, Meinhof helped RAF co-founder Andreas Baader escape from prison. In the process, a 64-year-old librarian was shot, but survived -- the first victim of the Baader Meinhof Gang.

The final years of Ulrike Meinhof's life were dramatized for the German film "Der Baader Meinhof Komplex."

The next month, Meinhof and several other members visited Jordan, where they trained in small arms and guerilla tactics with Palestinian terrorists. When they came back to Germany, they officially dubbed themselves the RAF. Meinhof quickly went about writing the influential militant pamphlet "Urban Guerilla Concept," which featured the first use of the term "Rote Armee Fraktion," and the first use of the seminal RAF insignia of a red star with a Heckler & Koch MP5 sub-machine gun.

Over the course of the next year, Meinhof assisted in a series of bank heists that put the RAF into enough cash to buy a LOT of guns. Which proved useful as members found themselves in several fire fights with police officers.

Further Reading

• Baader-Meinhof.com
• Wikipedia: Ulrike Meinhof
  

Meinhof's part in the group would culminate into a major bombing on May 19, 1972. She and other members of the RAF placed six bombs in the Springer Press building in Hamburg. Three were duds and three exploded, injuring 17 people.

Less than a month later, Meinhof was arrested while hiding out in Hanover.

Meinhof was eventually sentenced to 8 years in prison for murder, attempted murder, and organization of a criminal association. In 1975, she and 3 other RAF members were indicted on further charges. Before the trial could be concluded, Meinhof was found dead in her cell, hanging by her neck on a rope fashioned from a towel. Her death was ruled a suicide, though sympathizers argued that she was murdered by the authorities.

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